Looking for help finding natural pigments.

Hello,

My name is Sean-Paul. I am an art student in college. In lieu of writing a huge 7 page report for my Art History final I have chosen to do the alternative; a Service Learning Project.

Basically I am going to teach children about cave paintings. To do this I would like to make it as authentic as possible. So my question is: What kinds of specific, natural materials could I use to make the paints? I would like the materials to be recognizable to the children as well as easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive.

I am not sure if this is the right place for my question but it is kind of a strange question and was at a loss where to post it.

Thanks for your time.

Sean-Paul McKee
www.sean-paul.com for Cinema 4d resources

It depends on what cave paintings you are talking about. Those by the bushmen in the Drakensberg in South Africa were made by using clays and charcoal. Red and yellow ochre, as well as white pigments can be found in clays. So the best bet is to find a clayey stream and dig up samples. Then separate them according to colour and use them. If you want to make the process easier, you could clean the clay by making a slip from the sandy clay, letting it settle, then pouring off all but the sand and allowing it to dry back to clay. Charcoal is pretty easy to make with a fire and some branches!

If you want to make petroglyphs, that is a ratehr different matter, but I don't think you will want to do that.

The other important materials used by cave painters were psychoactive herbs, which, along with rhythmic drumming, enabled a state of detached hallucinating, known as the 'trance dance' - in this the rock face, illuminated only by fire, was seen to move and this movement was interpreted, along with memories of animals and hunts, into the sequence that was later painted from memory. You might find that magic mushrooms, LSD or, maybe, the Witches 'flying-ointment' (a mixture including henbane, belladona and fly agaric toadstools) will provide a good substitute. You might wish to consult a toxicologist before final preparation.

One simple technique we used with the kids was to simply take stones of various colours and grind them against each other. The softer one will leave a powdery residue on the harder one (a good way to learn a little geology too!). Then use a little spit to turn the resulting powder into paint, and apply it to a different rock with whatever is at hand. It helps to be living (as we are) in an area where there was once a good deal of glacial activity, since stones of different types are easy to find. The colours tend to be warm and rather muted, unless you want to ask the kids to bring in their parents gemstones

Or you can save the kids some work, and just dig up different kinds of local earth and clays, dry them out, and mix with water. Many artist colours are still made from clays (like umbers and siennas)

Rust(iron oxide) is a good source of red - usually not to hard to find (especially if you drive a ford )

Mineral colours can also be heated to change them a bit.

Fruits and berries and some vegetables (like beets)are also good, but generally the colour oxidizes to brownish after awhile.

And last but not least, remember charcoal. Cheers;

Chris

Or naturally occuring trypamines like Salvia Divinorum, or DMT...

also wasn't urine used a a medium

I wonder what that psychogenic cactus was that the Chacma's ate in Eugene Marais' 'Soul of the Ape?' Any idea?

But you got to be careful with that stuff. To wit: I saw a TV documentary featuring two Peruvian anthropologist who had been munching on San Pedro cactus, and they discovered that they could astral project over the Nazca Lines at 1,000 feet or so, and view them like book illustrations. But the interesting part was that they sliced up one of the stalks, and the cross sections formed this very pretty five-pointed star with a circle in the middle (the pith). Turns out that this was one of the favorite design motifs on Nazca pottery.

And it also was a very popular design at Teotihuacan at the same time. If you look at the Tepantla mural, there's the old 'Goggle-eyed' god devouring these stars - that the iconographer's have identified as 'starfish' because there are also seashells associated with them. I've never seen a starfish with a circle on it's back. My guess is that it's actually an accurate rendering of San Pedro Cactus slices. (or the equivalent Mexican species, which I think has another name.)
http://www.mescaline.com/sanpedro/

One of the most reasonable costs for bulk pigments are the various ones sold to ceramists by ceramics suppliers. Bone black, earth pigments like iron oxides - both black and red. And like Chris says, charcoal. Mix with the usual kids craft pastes these should all be 'relatively' safe for kids to work with.

No, it's a good book though. Yes, it is interesting how, once it is properly investigated, the art turns out to be quite a lot more meaningful.

Check the wbsite of dixie art http://www.dixieart.com look under fine art supplies and find maimeri pigments. They have several that would work

No, Sennelier (for example) uses PY43 (natural yellow ochre)., accordong to the tube here on my desk. But most lower grade paints do use PY42 Put them side by side, it's pretty easy to differentiate, colorwise.

Prussian blue is a synthetic (PB37 - ferric-ferrocyanide; it also has a strong odour when fresh which some find irritating).

Jax - if you are reading this - when I was down in Tucson found lots of copper by-product that was rather turquoise in colour - is that stuff useable as a safe pigment? Does it keep it's colour?

For the original poster - a good place to look for this information would be old hippie/back-to-the-lander magazines like Harrowsmith or Mother Earth News; natural pigments and dyes were all the rage for awhile, back in the late 70's or so....

Cheers;

says...

I have no idea what it is you may have. Copper will turn green. You probably have seen copper chloride and copper sulfate reagents in the chemistry lab. And turquois is but one form of copper, albeit a complex one. Some forms of copper are stable while others are not, so one would have to know exactly what it is you have to give a definitive answer. Copper will be attacked by mineral acids such as sulfuric and hydrochloric, but I don't know what long-term effect weaker acids might have. Everyone knows copper will eventually 'tarnish.' That is one form of corrosion from acidic atmospheric conditions. Copper is not affected by most alkaline solutions - ie; caustics. That's why its useful in marine uses - boat fittings, etc.

Here is an excellent web site on the subject:

The green copper compounds are mostly poisonous.

<<SNIP>>

Look at Daniel Smith out of seattle. I think its 'danielsmith.com'

They carry pigments including a natural blue.